Groom Ciara O’Connor tells H&H about the 2012 Champion Hurdle winner.
Fact file
Stable name: Ruby
Age: seven
Breed: thoroughbred
Sire: Oscar
Dam: Stony View
Discipline: NH racing
Trainer: Harry Fry (and previously Paul Nicholls)
Owners: the Festival Goers
Groom: Ciara O’Connor
Best Result: winner of the 2012 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham
Five things you didn’t know…
1 He was bred by the O’Dwyer family, who live in Co Tipperary, Ireland.
2 Richard Barber bought him at the Doncaster stores sales as a three-year-old, for £23,000.
3 He loves Cheltenham because he prefers to run left-handed.
4 The “Ruby” part of his name is not actually after Ruby Walsh, as many people assume. It is a reference to a ladies’ clothes shop owned by Lynn Hunt, one of his owners.
5 Whenever he licks anyone, he strangely uses the underside of his tongue.
To read the full interview with Ciara O’Connor about Rock On Ruby see 25 October issue of H&H
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